We are the music makers,And we are the dreamers of dreams,Wandering by lone sea-breakersAnd sitting by desolate streams;—World-losers and world-forsakers,On whom the pale moon gleams:Yet we are the movers and shakersOf the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties,we build up the world’s great cities.And out of a fabulous story,we fashion an empire’s glory.One man, with a dream, at pleasureshall go forth and conquer a crown.And three, with a new song’s measurecan trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying,in the buried past of the Earth,built Nineveh with our sighingand Babel itself with our mirth.And o’erthrew them with prophesyingto the old of the New World’s worth.For each age is a dream that is dying,or one that is coming to birth.

Coming into Week 10 of LA Marathon training, I’ve been putting in considerably more miles than I ever have. Up until last week I’ve felt pretty good after runs however starting last week, my body hit me with a reality check.

Going on flat runs at a relatively slower pace than what I’ve been running at has been a struggle. Legs feel heavy and my upper thigh area has been really sore as of late. Talking to others in the run groups, everybody is stressing the importance of recovery and after run stretching as well as foam rolling. The last thing that I want to do is to injure myself to the point where I need to take time off from running.

I am still in my first year of running so I am still learning the Do’s and Don’ts of it all.

2017 is coming to an end and this year I made a change in lifestyle from sitting around at carshows on weekends to running. In June I did my first 5k, finishing and feeling like my lungs are going to explode… nearing to 190lbs in body weight it was definitely a challenge. Now I’ve dropped 30lbs, running has become very enjoyable and training for a marathon is not something I would have ever thought I would be doing.

Never would I have imagined that I would run for fun, running to the point where I actually feel good physically and mentally is not something that was ever on my radar. I’ve met some of the best people I know and they give nothing but encouragement to me and everyone around them. Thank you to @congruns for bringing me into the running world as well as @minimallmilers and @long_beach_running_club for pushing me along my journey to whatever my end goal is. I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for me and my running journey.

How has everyone been? It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It seems as though my life has switched from predominantly cars to running and just being active in general.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of helping @lbrc with their aid station for the Long Beach Marsthon. Seeing our friends and other runners suffering with smiles was such a joy. The aid station was originally just intended for LBRC runners and friends but as it turned out, we ended up giving aid to pretty much all marathon runners! The fact that they were doing something epic was inspiring.

Witnessing all of this made me ask myself why am I not running? Why am I not participating? I really don’t have any excuses, I could have ran the half marathon if I had prepared myself but I guess I was content on running 5-6 mile distances. That weekend, that’s all going to change. I’ve registered for the L.A. Marsthon and with the help of my brother Cong (@congruns), the @MiniMall Milers and LBRC I’ll be able to finish it! The only person stopping me from doing this is myself!